Joseph Armitage

Born in Batley, Yorkshire. He was the son of Edward Armitage (born c.1849 in Batley), house painter and employer. He worked as an architect's assistant and then became a wood carver. After a period teaching in Leicester he relocated to London and established a successful practice in Westminster and then Lambeth.

Armitage's commissions included carving the 'King's Beasts' for the exterior pinnacles of St. George's Chapel, Windsor (during the restoration of the chapel between 1920-28, architect, Sir Harold Brakspear), the oak leaf symbol for the National Trust, which he secured through an open competition (1936), the coat of arms for Rhodesia House, which was cast by Doulton and Co. (1937), a plaque to distinguish trees planted for the coronation (1937), emblems of shipping and commerce for the new Chamber of Shipping designed by L.G. Farquhar of Burnet, Tait and Lorne (1940).

The architect Herbert Baker was an important patron and one of their early collaborations is the memorial to W.G. Grace in St. John's Wood Road, outside Lord's Cricket Ground (unveiled in 1923). Many of the high profile commissions for architectural carvings Armitage received from Baker were projects that also incorporated important sculptures by Charles Wheeler. Among these projects are: the memorial at Neuve Chapelle commemorating Indian soldiers who died in the First World War (1927); the sculptural scheme for India House (1930); the ornamental carving in stone and wood, as well as decorative plasterwork, for the Bank of England (1933); and architectural carvings of animals and plants on the exterior of South Africa House (1933). He lived at Strand-on-the-Green House in Chiswick and may have died at home.

Works

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Institutional and Business Connections

Advisor to Ministry of Town and County Planning/Ministry of Works and Buildings 1943 - 1944 (Presumed)The Ministries \'invited the Guild to send a Deputation to them and consequently a Sub-Committee of five members, being the Master (Professor A.E.Richardson, ARA), Past-Master Laurence A.Turner, Past-Master Gilbert Bayes, Bro.Joseph Armitage and Bro.Antony Gardner were elected by the Guild Committee as members of the Deputation and to consider the form that it should take\' Was part of sub-committee to answer questionnaire on \'Art Education\' from the Central School of Art and Design, on behalf of the Guild, together with H.Brownsword and A.Gardner [Sixtieth annual report of the committee of the Art Workers\' Guild, p.2].

Member of Art Workers Guild May 1910 - July 1945Member of committee from 1916-1917, honorary secretary from 1924-1928.
Was part of sub-committee to answer questionnaire on 'Art Education' from the Central School of Art and Design, on behalf of the Guild, together with Harold Brownsword and Anthony Gardner [Sixtieth annual report of the committee of the Art Workers\' Guild, p.1].
Died 1945.

Citing this record

'Joseph Armitage', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib2_1206481131, accessed 03 Mar 2015]